Four illegal migrants who tried to commandeer a ship in the Thames estuary have appeared in court.

They were discovered by the ship’s crew partway into the journey — but escaped once it reached the iconic Thames Estuary which wends its way into London.

The would-be illegal migrants then armed themselves and tried to threaten the crew into bringing the ship closer to the shoreline so they could make a swim for it — potentially very dangerous, given its enormous size — and smeared faeces on the windows of the bridge after they refused and locked themselves in.

The situation was only brought to an end when the Royal Navy’s elite Special Boat Service (SBS) unit stormed the ship and took the migrants into custody.